But now that Vande Hei returns to Earth, the mental and physical health of astronauts who spend a long time in space is being discussed. It is not without risk, and gravity researcher Jack van Loon of the Free University even calls it irresponsible. “I think it’s unethical to leave people in weightlessness for that long. It’s very unhealthy to be weightless for a long time.”
Brain change
Van Loon has been researching how the body changes during a long stay in space. For example, the immune system appears to work less well, the skin deteriorates and bone mass decreases. “The body will adapt to the new situation. There is nothing wrong with that, if you were to stay in space.”
But astronauts continue their lives on Earth after their mission. And it doesn’t help that the brain changes, as recent research shows. Cognitive functions are especially affected. Van Loon does not yet know whether this is permanent.
Bone reduction is a problem anyway. You can still see this after a year in astronauts who have been in space for a longer period of time. In the space station, astronauts train for an hour and a half every day to counteract these effects, but according to Van Loon, that is not enough.
Dutch space psychologist Mindy Howard also believes that the NASA astronaut will no longer be the same person as when he left. During training sessions she gives to commercial space travelers from Virgin Galactic, for example, she often sees that the image they have of themselves and the earth changes when they have seen the planet from afar. Let alone when people have been gone that long.
“Because people have seen the world in such a different perspective, they want to protect it better afterwards. They realize we only have one globe and see how vulnerable it is,” Howard says. But also smaller things like the love for food or family change. “People get a lot more pleasure from eating a hamburger or spending time with their loved one, for example.”
Insulation
There is a huge mental challenge in a long stay in a space station, according to Howard, where there are only a few other astronauts. “People can change a lot when they are on their own for such a long time. For example, they can become less productive and get homesick.”
To prepare astronauts as best as possible for isolation, they are often placed in isolation during their training. For example, the European space agency ESA provides training courses in Antarctica, where they leave people behind for a year. “In this way they can see how the future astronauts react to boredom or how they deal with the other sleeping patterns,” said the psychologist.
In the future, Howard sees many challenges in the field of mental training for astronauts, especially in view of the possible space missions to Mars. “Then you are in the dark and you only see stars, which is completely isolating.” She hopes that by then more attention will be paid to the mental health of astronauts. “We are not doing enough in that area yet and there is a lot to gain.”
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